[ Queer ] Message 1085 (1 left): Thu Oct 1, 1998 1:18pm
From: jov (dorje@ella)
Subject: so
4 lines (?)
why should we have queer studies at mills?
gotta write flyers :)
[ Queer ] Message 1086 (0 left): Thu Oct 1, 1998 1:58pm
From: aidan, net.spider (danica@ella)
Subject: heh
33 lines (?)
first: there's a page on colleges with queer studies programs and queer
nondiscrimination policies and stuff at
http://www.mills.edu/LIFE/ASMC/MQA/Avengers/queerstudies.html
umm
* because mills doesn't have any queer content in its curriculum
* because mills professors almost never mention queer aspects of what
they teach, like if they're talking about gertrude stein they don't
mention she was queer and if they're talking just about paris in the 20s
they don't mention the huge amount of queer history there
(that's for all the ppl who say "but we don't need to separate out all
the queer stuff and SEEEEGREGATE IT! we need to teach it in our regular
classes and save money!" well, we DON'T.)
* because i don't think mills professors have the resources to order
*more*
books or stuff *more* content into classes they already teach, if you want
to propose converting some of them into queer-inclusivity
* because we have a very strong culture and a strong, old history, and
those
are just as worth learning about as, for example, America During the
Depression
and WWII, or Latinos in the U.S., or Psychology of Death and Dying.
(that's my favorite reason)
it's like, to pick an example, Latino history and culture and so on should
be taught /both/ in classes on other subjects where it was important and
related, AND in separate classes just on Latino history or culture.
* because even though you may think that "straight" is a good default
for everything because the history we teach now is "everyone's history,"
straight history is not necessarily ours. the fact that queers have been
erased and discriminated against and kept out of the mainstream for
a long time /does/ mean that you are teaching only about people who are
not us,
and your refusal to teach about us shows a total disregard for, and even
a hatred of, the queer students who after all make up about half your
student
body.
* because last year, two-thirds of the students who responded to our poll
wanted more queer classes and half of those students wanted a queer
studies
major. there is demand for this.